ONCF

National railway operator of Morocco

ONCF (from French: Office National des Chemins de Fer; المكتب الوطني للسكك الحديدية al Maktab al Waṭaniyy lis Sikak al Ḥadīdiyyah; Moroccan National Railways Office) is Morocco's national railway operator. ONCF is a state owned company that is under the control of the Ministry of Equipment, Transport and Logistics and is responsible for all passenger and freight traffic on the national railway network. The company is also responsible for building and maintaining the rail infrastructure. The ONCF employs around 7,845 employees and has a network of 3,600 km, all 1435 standard gauge of which 1,300 km is electrified (2015). The general director of ONCF is Mohamed Rabie Khlie.

ONCF has undergone several institutional reforms before becoming a state owned company. Further institutional reforms are expected in order to open the national railway market to competition. Plans were made in 2007 to re form it into a limited company fully owned by the Moroccan State to be called SMCF (French: Société Marocaine des Chemins de Fer) but this hasn't materialized by the planned deadline in 2012.

Oujda railway station is the last station for passengers on the east–west link. The lines south of Oujda are for freight only and until the passenger service starts the link Tanger Tanger MED is also only operated for freight: mainly for the Renault factory at the port

There was a link to Algeria, but the border is now closed. Melilla, Spain train terminates at Nador Port, within walking distance of Melilla.

The turnover of the ONCF was growing, both in passengers and freight, until the decline of the economy in 2007. The number of passengers is still growing but freight figures are down. The total income on passengers (sold train tickets) and freight was in 2009 2.7 billion dirham. +Key figures ONCF 2003 2013 item 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 Passenger kilometersin million kilometers5316 5080 4819 4398 4190 3820 3658 3333 2987 2645 2374 Passengersmillion38,1 36,0 34,0 31,0 29,6 27.5 26,1 23,6 21,0 18,5 16,5 Freight tons36,200 37,000 37.000 36.000 25.000 30.703 35.859 34.851 34.911 32.901 30.552 Freight million ton kilometers5700 5830 5976 5572 4111 4986 5794 5827 5919 5563 5146

In September 2006 ONCF proposed a high speed rail connecting Tangier to Marrakech which will reduce the time of the journey from around 10 hours to only 3 1/2 hours. This service, if approved, may not be in operation until 2035. In 2007 Systra was appointed to design a 350 km/h alignment between Settat and Marrakech. This first part of the Atlantique high speed link will open in 2015. When operational trains with a capacity of 500 passengers will run every hour and even every 30 minutes in the rush hour. The CEO of the ONCF, Mohammed Rabie Khlie, expects to carry 8 million passengers per year. The high speed network should be available for the average Moroccan citizen. In December 2010, a contract was signed with Alstom to provide 14 trainsets based on the TGV Duplex.

The network that will carry the high speed network, from Tangier via Fes to Rabat and Marrakech are currently already electrified. The lines to the east of Fes are diesel powered only and the majority of the track is single: opposite trains pass each other at selected train stations.

For the Tangier Casablanca line the ONCF will invest 20 billion Moroccan dirham (approx. US$2.5 bln.). Half of this money is needed to construct the track. From the other half 5.6 bln. dirham is needed for technology around the tracks and the remaining 4.4 bln. is needed for the rolling stock.

In December 2019 and according to a 2018 agreement, ONCF received the first Prima M4 electric locomotives of 30 more units that will be delivered by Alstom.